Screwed: Destiny Falls, #4

By Shaw Hart

This story starts with a theft.

Iris Maeve has always had a penchant for things from the past. It's why she studied art history in college and why she opened her own antiques store in Destiny Falls. She prefers the simpler things, the slower pace of life in her hometown. She has her shop, her friends, and her little cabin in the woods.

Her life is going according to plan.

Until, one night, her store is broken into. The thieves get away with some of her antiques and leave her with a big mess to clean up.

Enter Arlo Michaels. He's the bartender at The Fainting Goat Pub in town and everything that she wants in a man.

And it looks like he wants her too.

When Arlo starts coming around to help her pick up, she wonders if maybe she's in danger of losing something else.

Like her heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shaw Hart
• Release date: Apr 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223431930

Book preview

ONE

Iris

This story starts with a theft.

But I don’t know about that yet.

I’m still in my own little world as I smile and make my way down the center aisle of my antique shop. It’s five thirty, almost closing time, and I make sure that the lights are shut off and the back door is locked. It’s my usual routine. I’m a bit neurotic and if I don’t do my closing routine in the same order, I know that I’ll second-guess myself and have to come back to double-check. I make sure that the packages that are ready to be mailed out tomorrow are stacked carefully on the counter before I triple-check the back door and windows. I make my way up to the front, breathing in the scent of my store as I go.

I’ve always loved antiques. Show me anything from decades or centuries ago and I go absolutely gaga. It’s always been like this.

I think, actually, I know that I got it from my grandma. She was my favorite person in the whole world and she practically raised me. My parents were too busy trying to make ends meet to remember that they had a kid most of the time but my grandma always had time for me.

My grandma was a history teacher and loved to tell me about lesson plans that she was working on or chapters that her class was working on that week. Her passion for it lit something inside of me, it inspired me, and I used to hang on her every word.

The first time that I found the history section at the Destiny Falls Library had been a real game changer. Instead of fairy tales, we read history books at bedtime. Forget cartoons on Saturday mornings. I’d rather sit with her and watch the History Channel for hours.

Her and my grandpa were the ones who used to take me to garage sales and flea markets to look for antiques or forgotten treasures. We spent most weekends traveling around the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, looking for finds to add to our collection. We never really found much, but that didn’t matter. Not to us. It was more just the excitement about what we could find and spending time together.

My grandparents were the only ones who really got why I wanted to open up my own antique store and when this prime spot right by the water and in the middle of downtown Destiny Falls became available, they helped me out with the down payment.

My grandma even gave me a few pieces to start my store and I still have them to this day. They’re in a display case right up front even though they’re not even close to the most expensive things in my store. I know that I’ll never be able to part with any of those pieces. They hold way too much sentimental value to me and I’ll never be able to get rid of any of them.

Growing up loving the past wasn’t easy. I liked to wear vintage clothes, partly because it was all that I could really find at the thrift stores in town, and partly because it made me feel closer to the past. It was like I was an antique in my retro clothes. Unfortunately for me, it also made me a weirdo in school where everyone else was wearing the latest fashion.

It didn’t just stop at clothes either. While everyone was excited about the newest iPhone or app, I was more interested in watching reruns of Antiques Roadshow.

Suffice to say that I never had that many friends.

I did have Madelyn though. She’s been my best friend since kindergarten and has always supported my hobbies and interests. Madelyn was always cool, one of the popular kids. She’s beautiful and funny, outgoing and sweet as pie. No one messed with Madelyn and once we became best friends, people stopped picking on me so much too. No one wanted to get on her bad side.

I needed Madelyn for more than protection though. We’re complete opposites and she balances me out. I’m the calm and rational one who tries to let things roll off of my back, and Madelyn, is the wild, spontaneous one who can't help but take things far too personally.

Her parents were workaholics too, so she spent a lot of time with me and my grandma. She never quite found a love for antiques like I did, but she loved being around other people. Plus, her options were either hang out with my grandma and me, or go to the Destiny Falls Market with her parents where I’m sure they would have put her to work.

It wasn’t really much of a hard choice.

My grandma would tell her stories about her college days or some of the trips that she took when she was younger. Madelyn used to love those stories and I know that she was making a list of things that she wanted to do when she was older too.

That’s another difference between Madelyn and me. She’s impulsive and adventurous and I never do anything without looking at it from every angle.

Speaking of every angle…

I spot Arlo as he parks in front of The Fainting Goat, the bar across the street from my antique store. He climbs out and my eyes devour the sight of him greedily.

He’s wearing dark jeans and a black button-down shirt. That seems to be his usual attire when he’s working at the bar. I can make out his sandy-brown hair and it still looks wet like he just got out of the shower. I can’t see his eyes from here, but I know that they’re a bright green that reminds me of sea glass or fresh-cut grass in the summer.

My friend Lyla says that he looks like Captain America and I have to admit that it’s pretty accurate. He’s lean but still muscled from carrying cases of beer and kegs around all day. I’ve never openly agreed with her though. I know that I would never hear the end of it if I did.

I know that if I told my friends that Arlo was hot or that I was into him, that they would be pushing me to ask him out or make a move on him.

The truth is that I want Arlo.

All of my friends say that he wants me too and that I should make a move on him, but I can’t. I want to make sure that we’re compatible, that I won’t mess everything up between us by saying something. Destiny Falls is a small town and I know that if he rejected me that it would spread around town like wildfire.

I’ve never been great with guys. I never dated in high school and I was too busy studying and working in college to go out to parties or find a boyfriend.

I’m also not the type of girl that most guys go for. I’m a wallflower and too mousy for most guys to even notice me. Add on the extra pounds that I gained over the last few years and the fact that I would rather spend my time sifting through dusty old antiques than going out to a party or to the beach and finding someone who’s into me is almost impossible.

Arlo seems different though.

Why don’t you just ask him out already? Madelyn asks from right behind me and I shriek.

I jump around, staring at her with wide eyes and she smirks at me. Her black hair is braided and hanging over one shoulder. She’s wearing a plain T-shirt and a pair of skinny jeans. She’s dressed casually, but she looks effortlessly chic. I look like an old maid standing next to her in my long floral-print skirt and pale-pink button-up blouse with the Peter Pan collar.

You scared the crap out of me, I hiss at her and she laughs.

Yeah, I got that from the yelling and spinning around, she deadpans.

I look over my shoulder and sure enough, Arlo is staring in our direction. He raises his hand in a wave and I hurry to turn around.

Let’s go inside, I whisper to Madelyn and she rolls her eyes and sighs but follows me into my store, Blast From The Past Antiques.

You should just talk to him, she tells me as the door closes behind us.

I can still see him through the front windows and I try not to be obvious that I’m watching him like a weirdo.

I can’t. I should be getting ready to close up shop and then we have to get ready for girls’ night, I tell her and it sounds like a lame excuse even to my own ears.

We both know that all of our friends would be more than okay with me being a few minutes late if it was because I was talking to Arlo.

Oh, come on, Iris! Besides, girls’ night is tomorrow night, Madelyn reminds me and I turn away from the window to focus on my friend.

Madelyn likes to talk with her hands when she’s worked up and having her in my shop when she’s like that is one of the worst places that she could be.

Shouldn’t you be getting home to Flynn? I ask her, trying to change the subject.

He’s picking me up in a few minutes, she says, waving me off and coming dangerously close to knocking over a vase from the 1860s.

How are things going between the two of you? I ask her as I try to maneuver her closer to the register and front counter, where there are fewer breakables.

Great. Everything is perfect between us, she says, a wide smile curving her lips. Now back to you and Arlo.

There’s nothing to talk about, I argue and she snorts.

Everyone knows that you two like each other. Everyone knows that he would say yes or ask you out if you just gave him an inkling that you felt the same way.

That’s not what I’m afraid of, I admit to her. What happens when things go sour?

Who’s to say that things would go sour?

History, I tell her flatly and she sighs.

You and history, she grumbles and I frown.

Those who don’t know history, I start.

Are doomed to repeat it, she finishes for me and I give her a pointed look.

She rolls her eyes and I make sure that the cash register is locked before I dig my keys out of my purse.

Iris, you have to get out and live life. If I can face my fears and tell Flynn how I felt about him, if I can risk my friendship with him, then you should tell Arlo that you like him too.

Yeah, you told Flynn that you loved him when he was literally hours away from leaving town. You didn’t have a whole lot left to lose, I point out to her dryly.

I still did it, so it still counts, she says primly and I huff out a laugh.

I see Flynn pull up in front of my shop and I start to relax. This inquisition will be over soon and I can head home and forget all about my pesky feelings for Arlo. Flynn waves at Arlo as he climbs out of his car and heads toward the front door.

You should tell him. Arlo is a good guy. He won’t hurt you.

You don’t know that, I tell her as Flynn opens the door.

His eyes go right to Madelyn and my heart kicks in my chest